critique my setup; recording amps

[riotshield]

hi

i am trying to dabble in some weekend recording for a bare minimum budget (college student). i ordered a couple things from musician's friend and it should be here tomorrow. i would like any input on what additions or changes would help (within my budget of course).

here's what i have:

pc:
athlon 1.4ghz
512mb ddr ram
wd 60gb 7200rpm hdd
aureal vortex2 superquad (sq2500) records at 16-bit/48khz

mic: shure sm57
preamp: m-audio audio buddy
software: currently quartz audio master (freeware), waiting for cakewalk home studio 9 to arrive
gear:
seagull m6 gloss acoustic
squier strat
vox cambridge 30
pedals: boss dd-3, cs-3 compression, ds-1
yamaha psr225 keyboard

thanks

my second question is, what is the best way to record my amp? should i plug it directly into the sound card line-in, thru the audio buddy, or mic it? thanks

[Evildick]

I would say mic the amp. Vary the mic placement in relation to the speaker cone (on center moving to off center) to get the sound you like. Also try messing with the gain since recording through a mic gives a completely different sound. Once home studio arrives, start recording the same thing into different tracks, having the only difference between the tracks being mic placement and volume/gain settings for the amp.

Play these tracks back individually to see what sounds best to you and the sound you are trying to achieve. When micing the amp, there are two general things to keep in mind for placement.

1) Pointing the mic at the center of the speaker produces a sound with more high-frequency edge.

2)Pointing the mic away from the center of the speaker (towards the rim of the cone) gives a warmer, smoother sound.

Since the amp is relatively a low power one, I would crank it up and see what kinda "crunch" I could out of it. Keep in mind, this is probably gonna piss the neighbors off. You should also be able to get some clean sounds also and use plug-ins to apply effects to the tracks since your computer has more than enough power to process them.

Dick